


angels

by sunbeamboy



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, 光神話 | Kid Icarus (Video Games)
Genre: Abduction, Abuse, Aftermath of Torture, Asexual Link, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gaslighting, M/M, Multi, PTSD, Past Rape/Non-con, Physical Abuse, Queer Character, Queer Themes, Queerplatonic Relationships, Rape Aftermath, asexual pit, traumatized link
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2019-07-28 08:12:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16237634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunbeamboy/pseuds/sunbeamboy
Summary: an angel falls from the sky, and link catches it. pit unwittingly serves as the catalyst for events bigger than himself and his world. link relives a past he doesn't talk about. dark pit gets desperate.moral of the story: it can always get worse.





	1. freefall

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Angel in Skyloft](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3479465) by [xBooxBooxBear](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xBooxBooxBear/pseuds/xBooxBooxBear). 



> like i said in the summary this is a harsh rewrite of TAiS. i'm changing like. a lot of it. characterizations, relationships/relationship dynamics, plot, the works.  
> the reason why i was compelled to do this is honestly really dumb but here goes: i spent like a sizeable chunk of last year hyperfocusing on this dumb fanfiction and it makes me Angry so here we are. lord have mercy why am i like this  
> also i cut out...8 of the first chapters because holy shit they're so boring and so pointless and i just could not stand to transcribe that much fluff and filler  
> so. uh. here goes nothing?  
> ((bleas dont be mad at me if u like or wrote the original i dont mean offense by this?? i have no impulse control and im soft))

The darkened night sky rushed past, but when he looked straight up it almost seemed like he wasn’t moving. The wind screamed in his ears and his heart slammed against the walls of his chest. He had screamed and begged and cried up to the placid, blinking stars; he had pounded his wings uselessly against the ink-black sky.

But no help had come. No one even knew he was here.

And so, despite the pounding of his heart and the screaming of the wind that stole his breath, emotionally he’d gone numb. He watched the stars crawl away from him and wondered if Lady Palutena would be able to find his body. If anyone would ever know what had happened to him.

* * *

 

Link sat, once again, at Skyloft’s edge, feet swinging in the dark sky. A storm was rolling in.

For a second, he thought it was deja vu. A streak of golden light blazed in the distance, the way it had those nights, months ago. Before, it had dipped, and arced, and soared across the backdrop of stars like a firefly.

Now, it was locked in a screaming free-fall toward the ground.  
Link’s heart jumped into his throat. Once before, there had been some kind of similar pink light that had caught it, but today the sky was mercilessly empty.

Link jumped up and ran with the feeling of obeying an impulse he hadn’t registered, his feet following a path he couldn’t see.

Before he knew where he was, his hands were fighting with a knot of thick, bristled rope. It gave way quickly enough and he tugged the knot apart with familiar ease.

He swung one leg up and suddenly had a loftwing’s back under him. Not his loftwing--most of the birds refused to fly at night--but a guard’s bird. It was one of those special caliber with the training to fly after the sun went down.

He kicked it off from the ground and briefly relished the familiarity of flying. He was slightly unsettled by not being able to see the vast expanse of blue around him, but pushed it away. It was easy enough to ignore when he saw the gold light again.

He urged the loftwing to go faster. He could feel it resisting--they were strangers to each other, and it was weird for both of them.

The light kept falling in its steady, near-vertical path. Link’s heart raced and soon sweat was chilling on his skin in the whipping wind. If it broke the cloud barrier he didn’t know what he’d do. At what felt like the last second, he pushed the stranger’s loftwing into a screaming dive --farther, farther, faster--until there was a heart stopping collision from above with the bird’s back. The bird let out a sharp, piercing cry of pain. Link’s blood chilled and he spent half a minute petting and soothing the bird before its distress lessened enough for him to relax a bit.

“I know, I know, I’m sorry,” he murmured to the puffed-up feathers on top of its head, “it’s okay. Just another minute or two and then you can rest, poor guy.” Link absentmindedly took to stroking and smoothing the top of its head as he eased it up gently and relaxed its speed.

The other minute or two it took to fly back to Skyloft was fairly uneventful. Link could feel the bird relax once they were away from the storm; the air’s odd, dense quality cleared up and the hair on his arms and the back of his neck stopped standing on end. He hadn’t noticed the change in the atmosphere until it went away.

Finally, finally, he eased the bird to the ground and stuck what he thought was a perfect landing. The loftwing shook its head and its puffed feathers smoothed back down. Link smiled admiringly at it.

“What in Goddess’ name were you doing?”

Link jumped out of his skin and whirled around like he’d been stuck with a pin. A furious Pipit was storming towards him. Link stuck his hands up in surrender.

“You should’ve been inside more than half an hour ago! Curfews are no joke, it isn’t safe--”

“Aw, Pip, come on, there haven’t been monsters out since De--since me ‘n’ Zel got back!”

“That may be so, bu--” the older Knight’s dark-blue eyes widened and locked on something over Link’s shoulder. Link followed his gaze until he got back to the loftwing--

Oh.

Right.

“ _What_ is _that_?”

“There was this light falling, and--”

“And so you stole a guard’s loftwing?! What in the world has gotten into you lately!?”

Link sighed helplessly. “I don’t know if I’d use the word ‘stole’--look--” he glanced back at what he’d caught. It was a small boy, face screwed up in pain. “Can you get Gaepora or something? I think he’s injured.”

At ‘injured’ Pipit snapped to attention, familiar determined expression coming back into his freckled face. He turned and rushed off without another word. Link turned back to the small boy, frowned at his labored breathing, and took to petting his head.

“It’s okay, kid. You’ll be alright.”


	2. introductions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ,, introductions sure do happen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof my post schedule has gone from sporadic to nonexistent  
> school is taking all of my spoons every day so That's Fun but im doing my best (screams)

Link had been awake for hours when the sun finally light his room up with soft, yellow light. Once he figured it was a reasonable time for a person to be awake, he left the room, having been dressed for ages.

He padded barefoot up the stairs and knocked on the door to Zelda’s room.

“Heaven’s sake, Link,” she groaned from the other side, “since when were you up early?”

“I couldn’t sleep last night,” he called back. It was technically true. “You need to see this.”

The door opened at last to reveal a disheveled Zelda in a loose-fitting dress she used as a nightgown. It was so big on her that it hung around one arm, leaving the pale shoulder bare, and draped to her knees. Link smiled;  he thought it had a cozy sort of beauty.

She returned his smile and took her usual position at his right side.

“What is it you want to show me?” She asked in her soft, melodic voice.

“You’ll see.”

Link had walked the loftwing to the infirmary the night before, before he retreated to his room and the silence, the boredom, the waiting, the itching fear. The infirmary was where he was taking her, now--he wanted a better look at the strange boy and couldn’t wait to see Zelda’s reaction.

The silent infirmary was bathed in soft, white light from a single window on the far side from the door. There were two rows of white beds and a wide aisle between, running down the center of the room. Every bed was empty but one. When they walked in he was on their right-hand side, in the bed closest to the window.

He was small and young-looking, perhaps thirteen to Link’s eye. He had light-brown, feathered hair, tousled boyishly by the wind and long, delicate eyelashes. His round, cherubic cheeks made him look even more like a child.

He also had white, feathered wings. They almost looked like those of a bird, but no bird he’d ever seen.

Zelda gasped in awe.

“Oh, he’s adorable,” she breathed, glowing. Link giggled. “He’s got wings!”

There were many white feathers scattered across the bed and floor. Zelda plucked one up and tucked it behind her pointed ear. Against the white-gold luster of her hair, the delicate little feather looked beautiful, downright holy.

“How did you know he was here?”

“I was awake when they brought him in.” Again, it technically wasn’t a lie.

The sleeping boy shifted and his face scrunched up as he writhed in bed.

“Pah...luh…” He whimpered quietly. “Pah-luhh…”

Zelda gasped softly. “Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat? Do you want some food?”

“Zel, he’s not a dog,” Link muttered in a low tone.

The boy inhaled deeply through the nose. “Food?”

Zelda turned to Link and shot him a victorious grin. “I’ll get him something.” She turned and rushed to the door.

Once the door clicked shut, Link took a chair beside the occupied bed.

“Good morning,” he sang softly in a uniquely high, quiet voice. The boy in bed scrunched his eyes up, then snapped them open. They were huge and startlingly blue.

“Good morning,” he sang back. His bright, sapphire blue eyes were sparkling with surprise and curiosity. Link found himself smiling more than he had in months. “Who are you?” His voice was soft, curious, surprisingly trusting. He didn’t seem alarmed.

“Uh, my name’s Link.” He was almost caught off guard by having to introduce himself. He decided not to mention the Hero thing for simplicity’s sake. Besides, it would be nice for someone not to see him as a puzzle to solve or a hero to worship.

The boy beamed. “I’m Pit!”

“Pit, huh?” Link smiled, face glowing with delight. “Uh… I hope this doesn’t sound rude, but--what _are_ you?”

Pit grinned with pride. “It’s fine! I’m an angel and a servant of the light goddess Palutena.”

Link momentarily lost himself at “servant,” thinking of two drastically different people in a fraction of a second. He blinked and looked away, but Pit noticed how his eyes had dimmed.

“Are you okay? Did I upset you?” Pit’s eyes were bright with concern--Link could hardly imagine how his emotions could change so quickly yet still seem so deep and genuine. He felt a stab of guilt for worrying the boy. “I really didn’t mean to--”

“Oh--Goddess, no, it’s fine. Just reminded me of someone.”

Pit’s eyes widened (it hardly seemed possible for them to get _bigger_ ) and he gasped. “Who? Who? Tell me about them!”

Link smiled apologetically at Pit. “Maybe another day, kid.”

Pit’s thin eyebrows furrowed and he pouted his lips, round cheeks flushing. “I’m not a kid!”

Link chuckled and his eyes shone again. “Okay, okay, noted.”

The door swung open and Zelda floated in with a rustle of fabric. She beamed at the boys and crossed the room weightlessly. She had muffins. Link’s eyes stuck to them immediately and he could feel his mouth drop open an inch or two.

Zelda looked at him and her eyes got a certain kind of sparkle. “I see you’re hungry, too,” she crowed softly, handing him a muffin. He wasn’t starving--not only had he been less hungry lately, but now he knew what it was to _starve_ \--but he ate a bit more at a time than usual. Zelda noticed and seemed to approve. Link wasn’t sure whether he felt pleased or condescended-to. Pit, in contrast, had scarfed down the muffin down to the wrapper by the time Link looked back up. On noticing Link’s attention, the angel beamed with his mouth still full. Link chuckled brightly.

Link, since Pit was busy eating as if he’d been starved for weeks, took the liberty of introducing the angel to her by restating what Pit had told him. Zelda, when she heard “light goddess Palutena,” stopped eating and stared up at Link with fervent curiosity.

Zelda took a small, quick nibble from her own muffin, then held it in her lap and seemed to almost immediately forget about it. Her eyes shone eagerly.

“So, Pit,” she exclaimed cheerily, leaning forward over the all-but-discarded muffin. “Palutena?”

Pit’s eyes immediately widened and his face brightened at the name. He swallowed immediately--with some effort--and grinned involuntarily. “Yeah, yeah, Lady Palutena!” Pit seemed to not be able to _stop_ grinning, and his face was only getting brighter. Pit launched with aggressive zeal into a long, admiring description of the goddess he served. Zelda listened, rapt-looking, throughout the spiel, but Link’s mind quickly wandered off of its own accord. After a while of staring blankly a few degrees to the right of Zelda’s face, Link mused that it seemed like Zelda might be more absorbed in admiring Pit than truly listening to him. Link was sort of amused by the concept before his thoughts wandered again.

Link looked up and toward Pit when the angel suddenly stopped talking.

“Link?”

“Hm?”

“What’s that?” Pit was staring with surprising intensity at Link’s face. Link at first flushed, bewildered, then paled. Zelda’s eyes widened, just a hair, and she reached toward Pit with one arm without touching him.

“Ah--hey, Pit, there’ll be plenty of time to talk about that later, it’s--uh--a delicate subject.”

Pit looked blankly at Zelda in silence for several long, somewhat awkward moments. “Okay,” he chirped eventually, prompting a small exhale from Link. Pit looked down at his lap, round cheeks considerably redder. “I… Sorry I made you uncomfortable,” he murmured. Link’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. 

"It's really fine," he said softly in return, offering the angel a gentle smile. Pit bashfully returned it, locking eyes with Link for several seconds before reaching up and poking the sharp tip of Link's nose.

"Boop."

* * *

 Link and Zelda spent most of the morning outside. It was something like routine--the closest to it that they had. Link liked being outside; he found the sun on his skin, wind in his hair, and grass under his body soothing. It was something consistent and familiar in the whirlwind his life had become. 

The two of them didn't do much on the mornings they spent outside. To sit in the sun or a patch of shade with his head on Zelda's lap while she read was all either of them wanted. Those mornings were Link's largest single source of happiness and calm. They kept him sane.

After their long introduction to Pit, that was how Link and Zelda spent the rest of the morning. At about noon, when they decided it was about time for lunch, Zelda closed her book and Link opened his eyes.

The warmth and quiet, as well as simply sitting still with his eyes closed for a while, had made Link fairly sleepy--thus, he was slower than Zelda at coming back to the world. 

"Come on, Link," she whispered, rubbing his head affectionately and smiling. Link stretched, arching his back, and yawned. 

"Is it lunchtime?"

"Sure. You hungry?"

Link shrugged. His appetite had drastically decreased in previous months. Zelda gazed off at the deep blue of the early-mid-day sky.

"I am. C'mon, let's go inside. Hey--" Link looked up at attention, pausing for a moment in the middle of standing up, "--do you know anything about what's wrong with Pit? Why he's in the infirmary, I mean?"

"Broken bones? I think there was probably some damage to his ribs, and his wings are at nasty angles in some places--did you see?"

Zelda's thin brows knitted. She hesitated. "No."

Link shrugged. She didn't have much of a passion for birds, so he understood. "Well, they looked broken, and pretty badly, to be honest."

Zelda went quiet, trying to summon an image of the angel in her mind, trying to picture those beautiful wings at grotesque angles. 

"Even with potions and what-not, it'll take a while to get better."

Zelda looked up at him and smiled optimistically. "More time to get to know him." Link smiled back. The way the sun was shining and how the blue sky framed her beautiful, happy face made it easier to feel her optimism, despite himself. Made it feel a bit more like the kind, forgiving world he'd once lived in. 

* * *

 Pit looked up at the creak of a door and his face split into a bright grin. "Hey guys!"

The two humans smiled back in acknowledgement. Across from Pit's bed, on the other side of the window, was a thin, humble door. Zelda crossed the room and opened it, peeking in. 

It was a dusty storage closet, stocked with shelves and shelves of potions and first-aid supplies. Zelda retrieved a full bottle of healing potion from one shelf and stood by the doorway, swirling it with one hand.

Pit looked at it, watching the crimson liquid churning in circles up the sides of the glass. "What's that?" he asked in a voice between curious and displeased.

"Red potion. It's for healing," Zelda explained while eyeing the potion for a moment. 

"You don't have Hot Springs?"

Link and Zelda exchanged a confused look. "...No?" they both drawled in unison. Pit stared at his lap, mystified, brows furrowed. 

"Huh," he said after a while. Zelda popped the cork from the bottle in her hands and offered it to the angel. Pit took it, not without some hesitation, and peered down the bottle at it before taking a hesitant sip.  

"Just chug it," Link prompted, "it works faster when you drink it fast." Pit eyed him for a second, then swallowed the rest of it in a gulp. Link's eyebrows shot up his forehead. Pit puffed out a final exhale and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Link and Zelda were both watching him with the same intense look of wonder.

"...What?"

"How is it?" Link asked almost in an undertone. Pit looked off to the side, thinking hard, then after several seconds shrugged. 

"Weird? Not in a bad way, just... It's so different from everything I've ever had that I don't really know how to compare it."

"I guess that makes sense," Zelda muttered. "It never really occurred to me that you wouldn't have potions, too."

"Nah, the hot springs heal everything. Well--" he cut himself off, tone changing dramatically, "--I guess not everything, 'cause they can take a little while and lose the magic or whatever if you use them too much, so if it's really bad it wouldn't--"

"We get it, we get it," Zelda cut him off, chuckling. Pit looked up in surprise, then blushed a bit.

"Oh--was I rambling? Sorry, I do that sometimes, I don't mean to get on your nerves--"

Link and Zelda both raised their hands quickly. "No, no!" Link exclaimed. "It's not annoying, you're fine."

Pit flushed a bit more and looked away, but a small smile had made its way onto his face, so they figured he probably wasn't very upset. 

"Tell us more about where you come from," Zelda said softly after a while, sitting gracefully on an empty bed next to Pit's. His bright, blue eyes immediately widened and shone. 

"Really? Really?" They both nodded. Pit was already bouncing in place. "Okay!"

He didn't need any encouraging after that. He launched into thought as if he'd been holding it in for ages. Neither of the humans had expected him to have so much to say, but the way he spoke and the way his eyes caught the light made the time run together until it was forgotten entirely, if only for a little while. 

There was a shard of bright afternoon light high on the wall behind Pit when he ran out of wind and sputtered to a finish. They'd been listening, rapt, for at least an hour and probably more, to the tiny angel's stories of massive gods and impossible feats of bravery. Even though Link found it hard to believe all of them--Pit was just so  _small_ \--merely considering them filled him with a familiar sort of sense of crushing inadequacy. He wanted to get up and take a stroll, walk it off. 

Pit interrupted Link's reverie with a cheerful "And you?"

"What?"

"What about you guys' world? This world, I guess--what's it like?"

"Well, I mean, I guess you'll find out a lot about it sooner or later, considering... you're here and everything," Zelda shrugged. She turned and gave Link a meaningful look and he frowned in response. She turned back to Pit and her eyes sparkled. Link's frown deepened. "But we've got a story we could tell that isn't so obvious."

Link's eyes widened a fraction. "Hey, Zelda, no."

She looked puzzled. "What? I'm sure Pit would be interested."

"I'm not--can we not? Not today?"

"Link, come on!" She was smiling but there was a real tension building between them. "We never get to talk about it, I thought you'd jump at an opportunity--"

He rolled his eyes and, abruptly, all semblance of cheer fell off her face. Link tensed for a second. "Geez, Zelda, I just don't want to right now. Why is that such a big deal?"

"Maybe I kinda wanted to tell someone, Link! Maybe I'm tired of keeping my mouth shut about it! Maybe it was a really big deal--"

"You think  _I_ wouldn't realize that? It was insanely stressful and terrifying and you honestly think I would just--"

"Stop shouting at me! Of course it was stressful and terrifying! I got  _fucking_ kidnapped, in case you forgot--"

Zelda cut herself off. Link's jaw was clenched and his hands, balled into white-knuckled fists at his sides, shook visibly. He pressed the butt of his palms against his eyelids, shaking harder, before turning and storming out of the room. Zelda, too shocked to speak, could only stand and watch. She only regained control of herself in time to lift a hand as the door slammed shut after him. 

Pit, anxiety mounting in his chest more and more every second, stared at her pained face and waited without breathing for something to happen. 

She glanced back at him quickly, as if only just remembering his presence, her expression not changing when she spoke. "I--I'm just going to--"

She ran out of the room without another word, leaving Pit breathing quickly and trying not to cry. 

* * *

 "Link? Link?!" 

The blond in question didn't respond.  _Of course she had to follow me_ , he thought bitterly, pulling his knees tighter against his chest. He sniffed and wiped at his eyes again before burying his face into his crossed arms. 

Zelda's feet crushed the grass loudly as she sprinted around the side of the Academy. There was a specific spot Link tended to go to at times like this--she didn't know if he even realized it, but she quickly had. 

He heard her approaching long before she dashed into his field of vision. He'd looked up a minute before, but the moment he saw her he buried his face again, still too mad to want to see her. 

He'd hidden his face within half a second or so, but Zelda had already seen how red and swollen his eyes were--and she knew, almost instinctively, that he'd been crying in any case. She stood, frowning, for a second or two, not sure what to say. It felt like her job to cheer him up. She didn't know where to start. Maybe it had been a mistake to follow so soon. 

"Link, I'm sorry..." she muttered, her voice somehow too loud, her feet planted to the ground. She felt plainly pathetic. "I... I didn't mean anything by it, y-you know that. I never meant to--" her voice broke off as it started trembling and she quickly wiped at her eyes, "--I never meant to--to h-hurt you--"

Link looked up, the anger in his face gone completely, as Zelda started crying quietly. He pushed himself to his feet, blue eyes dark but sympathetic. "Zelda? It's okay, I-I'm sorry I yelled--do you want to just go inside? I know you didn't mean to... upset me," he said softly, almost putting a hand on her arm but not quite. She leaned forward enough to put her head on his shoulder and arms around his midsection. He hugged her back. They stood there, silent, for a long time before dragging themselves inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter might be a bit of a hot fucking mess because i basically wrote it sporadically over the course of a month and right now i do not have a spare spoon for proofreading so <:P oops  
> cant wait to get to the Good Shit chapters maybe then ill have some motivation to write  
> also i don't think skyloft in-game has an infirmary but they must've had like. severe burn victims and, idk, the common cold or whatever so i made one up and You Can't Stop Me  
> You're In My World Now


	3. potions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> information is given. pit is a cuddlebug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> settle in lads this turned out to be a long one
> 
> i started typing this here on the 29th of october and now it's the 17th of november so Cool

Dark Pit must have had a bad day. Pit could hear his footsteps pounding into the floor, could hear him storming down the hall. Pit tried to swallow his nerves--he wasn't afraid of giant monsters and malevolent deities, why would he be scared of his friend?

Pit sat on a bed on a spartan bedroom, hands clenched into anxious fists in his lap, staring at the floor. His throat was tight enough to hurt. 

The door slammed open, making Pit flinch hard. The angel didn't turn to look--he was sure he'd seen the same look in Dark Pit's eyes a thousand times before. 

* * *

Pit shook his head at the memory, an odd nervousness under his skin. He rubbed his upper arms and the sides of his face, hoping to coax himself into a state of calm. Memories of that and incidents like it kept flashing behind his eyes and bringing with them a lingering anxiety. 

Thinking about Dark Pit brought his mind back to the awful state of his wings--the sharp, unnatural angles and violent disarray of feathers--and horrible pain. His ribs hurt so badly that it was difficult to breathe, he had to surrender use of one arm, and even a twitch of a wing made him wince. Without control of his wings, Pit felt downright naked. Looking at himself in a mirror almost made him feel like crying, so sick was he with worry and disgust. The bruises had faded and all-but-disappeared thanks to the potion the day before, but there were scratches that were still visible. The aches and pains complaining from every square inch of his body drained his energy and Pit feared it would make him snappish. 

Then the door opened to reveal Link's bright eyes and face flushed from sleep, and some of the weight fell off of Pit's shoulders. 

"Good morning," Link murmured in a voice husky with sleep, provoking a big grin from the angel. 

"Morning!" Pit chirped. "You seem like you slept well."

Link grinned clumsily, charmingly, and rubbed the back of his head. He laughed a bit. "Yeah, for once," he said and laughed a bit more. The color in his cheeks made the smattering of freckles clear as daylight. It made Pit's heart feel larger and pulled his lips into a smile. Link reached into a small leather bag at his hip and retrieved a bottle larger than the bag itself. Before Pit could ask or comment, he noticed the red potion it contained and smelled it when the cork popped out, and the thought was lost in his throat. "Here you go," Link said softly as he handed the glass bottle to Pit. The angel drained it in two seconds. 

A pleasant warmth radiated out from the center of his chest, like he'd been sitting in a patch of sunlight. The pain faded in a pleasant tingling, and when the tingling went away the pain did not come back to replace it. 

Pit exhaled, luxuriating in relief. Link smiled at seeing him happy. The profound misery in Pit's face when Link had walked in had concerned the Hylian. 

"Why can't I have more?" The angel asked,  making Link frown slightly as he realized Pit must still be in pain. 

"We try to keep them spaced out when it's not an emergency.Taking a lot at once decreases the effectiveness so it becomes wasteful--plus, there have been stories of people getting addicted to them. It's just better to be careful when we can," Link finished on a sigh. Pit nodded--he wasn't disappointed, just curious. 

"I'm not upset, you don't need to sound so sorry," Pit chirped cheerfully. Link smiled at him. 

"Have you had anything to eat today?"

"Yeah, Zelda poked in earlier and brought some food. She also said I should... 'keep a low profile'."

Link nodded somberly. "That would probably be for the best, so we don't freak people out too much. They don't see a lot of new stuff up here."

Pit nodded sagely and said "I can imagine," making Link snicker. 

"But seriously," the Hylian continued, "we just need to hide the wings and you should be fine."

Pit pouted. "I like my wings!"

Link gave him a sympathetic look. "I know, I like them too." Pit blushed and hid a flattered smile. "Me and Zelda are just worried it'll freak people out. We don't have angels here, y'know."

Pit sighed in resignation. "Yeah, yeah, okay."

"It's not all bad. Hey--you could stay in my room! Instead of being alone out here all day. I have classes during the day but with the wings hidden there should be no problem with you being out in Skyloft-proper."

Pit's eyes lit up and he gasped loudly. "I could stay in your room?" He exclaimed, face glowing. Link grinned and nodded. Pit squealed.

 “I’ll go see if there are any spare uniforms that would fit you.” Link jumped up, glowing with excitement, and sprinted out of the room. Pit only had to wait a couple seconds before Link came back with a white shirt over his arm. "Do you think you'll be okay? Wearing something that kind of pins your wings down--would it hurt?"

"Uhh," Pit drawled, looking off to one side. "I don't know. Might as well try." Pit shrugged and, before Link could register his intent, grabbed the white tunic. "Can you help? This arm still hurts."

Link sighed. "If you're sure you want to try it." He, quite deftly, managed to slip off Pit's chiton and help him into the heavier, more fitted fabric. To Link's surprise and Pit's delight, it wasn't so uncomfortable as to be very painful. Pit realized that the broken bones didn't hurt nearly as much, and he was starting to regain mobility. 

Pit stretched his arms up and around to make it a bit more comfortable, then released a big exhale. Link inspected it proudly. 

"Seems like it fits fine. How do you feel?"

Pit yawned, stretched, and exhaled again. "A little cramped, but good." He beamed at the Hylian. 

Link shook his head, smiling. "Well, that's good. I need to be heading to class soon, so I'll drop you off at my room, if that's okay."

"Yeah, 'course that's okay!" Pit grinned up at Link and swung his legs out of bed. He was even shorter standing up, just barely coming up to the nape of Link's neck. 

Link naturally walked faster than everyone around him, but when he glanced over his shoulder, he'd left Pit a good distance behind. He paused to wait and watch, and saw Pit walking slowly and staring at the room around him in complete awe. Pit sprinted, in a surprisingly agile way for his bouncing gait, to stare in wide-eyed wonder at the walls, mosaic floor patterns, out of windows, everywhere that Link considered utterly mundane. 

"This place is so cool," Pit breathed as he pressed his hands and nose against a window. His breath fogged on the glass and he pulled away and drew a smiley face in the condensation. Link smiled. 

"I didn't think you'd be impressed. We don't get new people up here, and I guess I'm just used to it. Guess we all are."

"I can't imagine getting used to that view." Link shrugged in response, hands shoved in his pockets. "It's dizzying."

"Yeah. It can be. But the height keeps us safe."

"Safe from what?"

Link just chuckled dryly. "It's a long story."

Link resumed walking to his room, and Pit pulled away from the window and followed. 

"I figured you'd be used to heights. What with the wings and all."

Pit's face went a deep shade pf crimson. He didn't respond for a while, staring at the floor as they walked. Just as Link glanced back in concern, Pit finally said, "I can't fly."

Link looked back again, but this time his gaze locked on Pit's flushed face. The Hylian didn't even look shocked as much as apologetic and inquisitive. "Goddess, um... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you."

Pit tried a smile. It felt false. "It's okay. It's just that everyone at home makes fun of me for it. Lady Palutena can keep me in the air for a little while, but. I don't know. It's--"

"Not the same," Link finished the thought at an almost-inaudible mutter. Pit stared up at him in surprise for a couple seconds before his eyes went back to the floor. 

"Yeah. Not the same."

* * *

 

Link disappeared off to class immediately after getting Pit into his room, leaving the angel alone and with nothing to do. 

There was a bookshelf full of weathered old tomes, which Pit liked for the way the covers felt and the thickness and sound of the pages, but which otherwise held no interest for him. The strange clothes in his wardrobe were interesting, but only for a minute. His waning attention was eventually snared, however, by a sizable collection of small wooden statuettes. Pit plucked up a simple one and turned it in his hands, over and over, totally enraptured by it. The workmanship was fascinating: the deliberateness of the chips and carves, the obvious respectful awe with which the artist had viewed their subject. Pit ran a finger slowly and carefully down the statue, taking in both the smoothness of wood and subtle details worked into it. 

Simply put, it was breathtaking. 

Eventually Pit's eyes wandered from the statues to Link's cluttered desk, locating on it a small set of metal tools with wooden handles. The edges and points seemed to have been sharpened by hand at least once, but the things partially covering them and the dulled sheen of the steel made it clear that they hadn't been touched in a while. Pit had never seen tools like them before, but he could see how they would fit like a glove into the gouges, lines, and cuts in the statues. 

The pieces fell into place and Pit gasped out loud. 

* * *

Zelda was doggedly searching for a needle she'd lost. She wanted to get back into sewing; she hadn't done it since that last, awful Wing Ceremony and everything that followed. 

The only problem was that one goddamned needle. 

She unfisted her hands from her bright blonde hair and decided to do Link's room a quick once-over.

She had just opened the door when she flinched and screamed.

"Pit! Hylia's sake, you scared me!"

Pit had curled in on himself in fright with his huge, wide eyes staring up at her apologetically. "Sorry, I didn't mean to," he said in his high, songbird voice. Zelda slumped and sighed. 

"It's okay. Have you seen a sewing needle?" Pit had just started shaking his head when her eyes locked on his hands. "What's that?"

"Oh--" Pit looked down in turn, remembering the statuette he was holding. He held it out for her to see better. "I found it in Link's room. There's a bunch--did he--did he  _make_ these?"

Despite how bright, how impressed and full of wonder Pit's eyes were, Zelda's heart fell as she recognized the handiwork. 

"Yeah," she murmured in a low, forlorn voice. "Yeah, he did. He was wonderful at that. And you should have seen how...  _happy_ it made him." 

Zelda crossed the room slowly, as if in a trance, and sat next to Pit on Link's bed. 

"He doesn't do it anymore?" Pit's voice and face had inherited Zelda's moroseness. 

"He hasn't for a while. There was a period of time, not longer than a handful of months ago, where he'd occasionally try and make a little something. But for the last two months or so he hasn't even done that." Zelda let her train of thought trail off. The sudden sense of immense loss was more than she knew how to articulate. She hadn't thought about it before. "Hylia. I wish I'd noticed it earlier."

* * *

The sun was approaching the horizon by the time Link returned. Pit jumped off the bed and ran to give him a bone-crushing hug. Link laughed in surprise and hugged the angel back, being careful with Pit's wings. 

"Hey, Pit! How was your first day out of the infirmary?"

"Boring," Pit groaned, giving Link's abdomen an extra, affectionate squeeze. 

"You can always borrow something from my bookshelf."

Pit flushed. "I can't read. No one ever taught me."

Link looked shocked. "I'm sorry! You really must have been bored, there's like, nothing else to do in here. In the future you can just walk around Skyloft, as long as the wings are hidden."

Pit's eyes brightened and he squealed. Seeing him bouncing on his toes brought an involuntary smile to Link's face. 

The Hylian sat at his desk and tiredly opened a book that was already sitting there. The sun was almost down. Pit yawned, drawing Link's attention back to him. 

"Oh--if you're tired you can go ahead and sleep in my bed."

"But, then, where will you sleep?"

"I could squeeze in on the side. Or, if there's not enough room, or that makes you uncomfortable, I could sleep on the floor."

"No, no, no, you don't need to do that," Pit exclaimed, managing to squirm out of the white tunic. He sighed and stretched, wincing at extending his wings. "G'night Link!"

"Night," he said back and smiled before returning to his book. He clicked a lamp on and shifted. 

The moment Pit got in bed he realized he wasn't, yet, very tired. For a while he simply observed Link silently, taking in the way the light shone orange-gold in his hair, and every subtle movement he made. Eventually, Pit closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, hoping that being still and silent with his eyes closed for so long would make it true. He liked hearing the ruffling of pages being turned and the occasional faint humming from Link.

He didn't know how long he'd been asleep when he was woken by the bed shifting as Link sat on it. The room was completely pitch-black--the light had been extinguished at some point--but for the silver moonlight shimmering faintly throughout the room. At least a minute passed before the human lay down and got under the blankets. Pit looped an arm over the dip in Link's side where the rib cage became the waist and snuggled his face against Link's back. Link was incredibly warm. Pit had perhaps never been so content or satisfied. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also apparently (according to the like. animated thing with palutena and the vegetables) pit's voice is not like sonic-the-hedgehog-12-year-old-anime-protagonist reedy?? it's like?? like he sounds like a man in his mid twenties???? it fucks me up yall im just gonna quietly ignore it
> 
> also are there lamps in skyloft??????? aaaa


	4. broken bones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> link has a nightmare. pit is concerned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> good fucking lord that turned into a straight-up hiatus huh. oops! i had this chapter written in october, never fully typed it up because i just kept not getting around to it for months, and then got to a point where i absolutely hated the chapter draft and had to just completely restructure it. maybe it'll be a little easier to write now that i can finally, FINALLY, go somewhere new with it.  
> this one's kinda small but... it is what it is.

Link stood at his desk, hands clutching the edge restlessly. His skin was clammy and cold and his eyelids felt heavy. His train of thought was on a short, circular track that came back to one idea over and over, and he was powerless to change any part of it. His skin buzzed with desperation--it was unthinkable to keep standing in one place, but he didn’t know what it was he wanted to do, couldn’t even guess at what would make his mind stop screaming. You can’t reason with a monster or a wild animal.

He put his elbows on the desk and folded his hands over the back of his neck, clawing at the skin and pulling his own hair until it hurt. It was cold. He wanted to go back to bed, back to sleep. It was no good and he knew it. He could go back to sleep once the tumult in his own head quieted down.

He lit a lantern and slipped out, still in pajamas. The first time or two this had happened, he’d forced himself to get dressed fully, up to the tunic and everything, just in case. It was pointless, he knew, and so had eventually been spared that small efficiency.

 

Pit sat up when Link left. He’d been awake for an hour or so, watching the moonlight crawl across Link’s room and the wheels turn in the Hylian’s head. He’d been woken by a brutal kick to the thigh, and realized soon that it was from the blond human thrashing violently like he was being strangled. Pit wanted to wake him up, but was so paralyzed by shock and anxiety that all he could do was stare into the dark room and keep his breathing quiet. Eventually, Link had shot up, hyperventilating, and clenched his fists in his sweat-soaked hair. For almost the full rest of an hour, he’d been standing at the desk and staring out the window. Pit supposed he hadn’t been much more productive. He just wanted to know what Link had been thinking; he wanted to know so badly that the curiosity was eating him from the inside out, corrosive and gnawing like a strong acid. He was terrified at the thought of asking.

 

* * *

 

Hours later, when the sun had risen to paint the bedroom in bright, soft light, and Link had gone off to class, Pit had hardly gotten any more sleep. The image of Link, face contorted with pain and screaming silently, kept flashing behind his eyelids when he closed his eyes. He thought he’d seen a similar expression carved into some of the stone faces of what had been men he’d commanded as he passed them in the Underworld. It was haunting him.

Pit had already grown to like Link a fair amount, spending the last several days getting acquainted with the way he smiled. An easy, even lazy, half-smile seemed the dominant, automatic expression for his face, the one best suited to his soft features, the one that made him seem to glow. The way he’d been that morning felt as unnatural and perverse as a nightmare, felt almost voyeuristic, if the word even still applied when stripped of all possible pleasure. He was scared for Link to know he even knew it had ever happened. He cupped a hand over his forehead, overwhelmed.

Several years ago, he’d known a centurion who had been paralyzed in the Underworld as a stone statue. He’d spent uncountably many nights listening to descriptions of that time-without-time, of being thrust into a form not only non-human but even non-living. Something that shouldn’t have been able to hear and feel, assaulted constantly by the sounds of monsters and distant screams, unable to breathe, eat, move, blink, swallow. They couldn’t measure the passage of time and so that time felt unending; they’d somehow spent eternity in a limbo between death and life, between life and lack thereof. The despair of eternity and terror of dying haunted the soldier every time they slept. Pit started to notice that the men in his command could hardly stand the existence of humanoid statues; they always tensed as if in a cold breeze, glancing continually toward and away from the statue’s face, their eyes wide the way a man’s would be when oblivion stared him in the face. Pit avoided directly addressing it, despite it always being something of the elephant in the room, but privately it shocked him. He looked them in the eyes and instead of seeing a stranger whom he was training, he saw a soldier who’d spent eternity in the void and the other centurions who had been willing to die for him. So many of them had died for him; so many more had suffered.

He couldn’t help but think of that tortured centurion and his compatriots when he thought of nightmares.

 

There were bruises on his arms and chest. They’d completely faded by then, but Pit had spent a long time in a hospital bed tracing them with his finger, counting them, assessing where they’d come from. He could have drawn a dot where each and every one of them had been. They made him deeply uncomfortable due to what they reminded him of. Over the days, that feeling had spread to Dark Pit more generally. Pit felt weird and bad about the squirming anxiety and fear he was consumed by every time he thought about the other angel--he had a suspicion that the feeling was justified, but another part of him was equally convinced that he shouldn’t be upset. Sure, it wasn’t nice, part of his brain whispered, but you shouldn’t blame him for it, really. You could have avoided the whole mess if you were less selfish. You can’t really be upset about something you caused.

Pit grimaced, forcibly grounding himself back in Link’s room. He didn’t want to think about that awful night and he certainly didn’t want to get locked in another spiral of doubt and self-blame. He rolled over, buried his face in Link’s pillow--the one beside his head, that smelled more noticeably like Link’s hair--and forced himself to think only of Skyloft and the residents thereof, and it wasn’t long before Pit’s exhaustion came back and he drifted off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so part of the story of the first kid icarus game is that all the centurions are turned to stone in the underworld. i'd had a thought of pit being familiar with ptsd already because of centurions, and then reading that,, feel like that's an appropriately fucked up thing for that


	5. a dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> pit has a nightmare. link is sympathetic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hhhh BIG YIKES that was a Hiatus And A Half  
> this 'uns short,,, we'll see abt next one laDS

Darkness. Darkness and pain. Darkness and pain and distant noise--screeching, like the voices of the damned. Mind invaded by a strange, foreign fear--someone else's fear. A pounding sense of danger; sounds like a frantic heartbeat in his ears. He was running from something. Running and losing ground. A voice shattered through his head, blotting everything else out.

"Pit!"

* * *

 

Pit lurched and bolted up. His hands clenched feverishly, clawing at Link' sheets. His heart hammered at his chest and he could hardly breathe. Cold sweat soaked his forehead, bullets of it rolling down his temples and hitting the blanket. His whole body was soaked with sweat down to the thighs. Residual fear, clinging to his skin like ivy, and overwhelmment made him dangerously close to crying. 

"Shh. Shhh, it's okay," a soft voice--Link's voice--muttered in his ear as one hand stroked the top of his head. Pit gasped in a breath that shuddered out of him immediately. The human pulled Pit against his chest, fingers curling and uncurling in his hair, rubbing Pit's scalp with his fingertips. "You're okay. I'm here, it was just a dream." Pit buried his face into Link's shoulder as Link wrapped one arm around him and rubbed his back. It took a full minute, but eventually Pit had come back from the brink of panicking and hugged the human back, taking a deep breath in. 

"T-thanks, Link," he murmured, reluctantly pulling back from the pleasant warmth of Link's arms and chest. Link responded with a soft smile, continuing to rub Pit's back until it was clear the angel had calmed down.

"What happened? Do you want to talk about it?"

Pit shuddered a bit, involuntarily. In the light of afternoon, with a calm Link beside him, the whole ordeal seemed frankly stupid. He could hardly remember any but a second or two of the dream. In his mind's eye, he could already see Link laughing at him, at how ridiculous he was being. "Y-yeah," he muttered, succumbing to the urgent need to talk about it and make the dream stop banging around the inside of his skull. "I was in the Underworld, r-running... from something... I didn't see what it was but I just knew that it would kill me if it caught me. There was this noise--screaming--in the background... and I was losing ground..." Pit's voice trailed off. He couldn't find words that would recreate the feeling. It had felt like hours that he spent running from an inevitable death, and now the entire ordeal had been spoken in two sentences. The words felt too small and empty and weak to convey how  **real** it had all been. "And then someone said my name and I woke up." That one word, the tone with which his name had been shouted, had lodged itself firmly in his memory, and even to himself, he had absolutely no idea why. 

"Oh, goodness, Pit! That's awful." The sincerity in Link's voice shocked Pit into meeting his eyes. 

"Really?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course! That sounds horrible--spending an entire dream in, just, constant fear of death?" Link's tone was questioning, like he was asking for confirmation, and Pit nodded. "Goddess. You must be exhausted." Link was smiling softly, empathetically. Pit nodded; he realized that he really was  _dead_ tired. Link's sympathy was surprising, but it was easy to just relax into it and accept it as his fatigue became more and more apparent. "Those kinds of nightmares are the worst--the ones that tire you out." Link's eyes were so deeply sincere that it made Pit's chest tight, made it clear how much and how truly the human felt for him. 

"I'm not used to sympathy like that." He'd said it before he'd thought it. Pit was surprised at hearing himself say it out loud--he hadn't meant to vocalize it. 

"What do you mean?"

Dark Pit. Pit jolted--flinched inward, harshly and involuntarily. He'd almost forgotten again. It had been hardly more than a week, but Skyworld felt so distant, so long-gone. "Aside from Lady Palutena, 'cause I don't know if she counts, I kinda only have one friend. So he would be the person I tell about this stuff, I guess, but he just... makes it sound dumb." He swallowed. He was nervous about talking about Dark Pit. Their relationship hung by a fragile thread, teetered constantly in delicate balance, and he was scared of missing part of that balance. Too much of this behavior or that, and everything fell apart. "Like, he makes me realize that it  _is_ dumb. Usually, I just get upset by the stupidest things, so I sorta expect all of it to be dumb."

Link's brows furrowed and he scowled. Pit's heart leapt in his chest briefly, startling him with a half-second attack of fright. "What do you mean, dumb," Link asked, his voice quiet but still soft. "Would he have said that nightmare was stupid or something?"

Pit realized he didn't know. He had just come to terms with his own emotions, and wasn't ready to dismiss them, the way he did when thinking that Dark Pit would dismiss them as well. At the same time, however, part of him whispered that it was likely that he would have done precisely that. 

Pit shrugged. That delicate thread was starting to feel frayed. He didn't want to say any more for fear of it snapping in his fingers.

* * *

 

Pit's head was spinning and he didn't know what else to do. He didn't register the impulse until his knuckles rapped against the hardwood. The door opened and, as expected, revealed the tidy and placid figure of Zelda in the doorway. She smiled, even glowed, at the sight of Pit and immediately gestured the angel in. 

"What brings you here? Wanted to stretch your legs?"

"I think I want some advice, actually." Pit's stomach was all in knots and it made him queasy. "If someone is kind of rude, o-or... dismissive, maybe, can they still be a good friend?"

Zelda's face blanked and went cold. "Did something happen? Did Link--"

Pit's heart went into a frenzy at the idea of the two of them fighting again and he lunged forward from the edge of Zelda's bed. Both hands went up, simultaneously surrendering and pleading. "No, no, no, it's got nothing with him! It's just my friend from Skyworld, you wouldn't have met them."

Zelda's posture and face relaxed and some of her smile came back. "Oh," she said quietly, looking off into space, "okay. Uh, let me think, I kind of lost track of what you said." Several seconds passed before her head snapped up, eyes bright, and she snapped her fingers. "Right, right. Do they... I mean, does it seem like they like you? Like they want to be your friend, or whatever?"

Dark Pit was weird sometimes, and rude a lot of times, but... It seemed that him wanting to be close was undisputable. Otherwise, why would he keep sticking around? Maybe the rudeness was unintentional, maybe it was supposed to be a joke or something. 

"Yeah, he cares," Pit said after a second, hesitant but confident.

"Well, then... I'd say he's your friend. Sounds like his heart is in the right place, and if he wants to be close, then he can't be that bad. It'd be a different thing if he just didn't care at all." She shrugged. Pit nodded, but he wasn't sure if he was on stabler ground than before. Now he had two completely contradictory opinions. He smiled and thanked her and left, with no idea where to turn or what to do.

* * *

 

 Meanwhile, Link's heart had jumped into motion and wouldn't settle back down. It thumped steadily and loudly in his chest like a piston, hammering against the inside of his chest. His windpipe constricted, warningly, forcing him to struggle against it to breathe and swallow. He was nervous about what it all meant; it had been a little while, and he didn't want to have to pick himself up again today, he was already so tired. 

He was already _so_ tired. 

_It_ was welling up in his chest, just a bit, almost teasing. He expected, at any second, it to come rising and burning in his throat like acid. Every time the feeling came back he wondered how to stop it, but now it seemed to be too late. It felt unavoidable. 

Zelda would be sympathetic. She always had been. There had been so many times, almost identical to this, that she'd seen him break down. She always coaxed him back to himself, or if not, at least sat with him and did what she could. She'd said he could rely on her for anything. 

The acidic burning clawed its way up his throat and it hurt to draw a breath in.

This time, he thought he'd be better off weathering the storm alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so the nightmare was supposed to be at the end of the last chapter. i didn't remember until it was posted and then i just shrugged and said fuck it  
> i feel like this isn't a bad change anyway because it might be less confusing to have the nightmare and the reaction to the nightmare in the same chapter.  
> also yes "overwhelmment" is a word i promise i did not make that up. the double m is ugly but what can u do


	6. a thought

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> link is an anxious mess

On waking up, Link had no memories of anything except unadulterated, world-ending panic. There was no coherent thought, no concrete image or concept, just a horrible dread, a certainty of danger. He knew he wasn't safe and he knew it was too late. 

All of that rushed into his head in the smallest fraction of a second, the instant that consciousness crashed back into him. He shot up like a bullet and was on the ground an instant later, knees slamming into the floorboards and legs launching him back to his feet before the pain even registered. After three steps his legs started shaking just enough to make him think about it and reach about to steady himself. One hand blindly found a smooth wooden surface, which, in the moonlight, he recognized a second later as a wardrobe. No--not  _a_ wardrobe,  _his_ wardrobe. 

He stared at it for several seconds, hardly comprehending it. His heart was racing and his breathing erratic as he heaved in air. The hand stayed splayed flat against the door as, ever so slowly, Link came to his senses. He was in his room still, everything totally undisturbed. He was sure he would know if anything had been touched--he was very careful and deliberate in committing those details to memory every night, just in case. 

Breathing heavily, but more slowly, he ran a hand down his face and cupped it on the back of his neck, sighing. 

The bedsprings creaked, a tiny bit, behind him. He would've panicked if he hadn't just totally exhausted himself, but there was no reason to panic, it turned out.

"Link?"

It was just Pit, he realized with unmistakable relief.

"Yeah, Pit?"

"Um... Are you okay?" Pit sounded upset, moreso than was usual for the circumstance. Link turned, with his entire body, about sixty degrees. The angel looked...distressed, his eyes such a cocktail of misery and horror that it was difficult to sort through and comprehend. Something in Link's stomach twisted with guilt. 

"I'm alright." His lips managed a passable imitation of a smile, but it was completely hollow and he knew that Pit knew. 

"No, you aren't." It was the most serious and confrontational Link had ever seen the angel act. "For Gods' sake, Link, you aren't okay!" His voice had gotten louder, out of desperation rather than anger, but it was still startling. "I can  _tell_ you aren't! I've seen you having these nightmares, they aren't a secret from me." The force in his tone withered and faltered until his voice just sounded desperate and pleading and  _hurt_. It broke Link's heart. 

He ran his hands over his face, overwhelmed. "I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean to..." his voice trailed off. "No, you're right. It's been really rough lately. I just..." His voice wilted and died in his throat again, and he met Pit's eyes without planning to. His body felt unbearably heavy, like he was full of lead, and his eyes were heavy and tired and dry. The circles under his eyes were getting darker and darker; he got comments and questions about it every day recently. Pit locked eyes with him and seemed to have a dialogue with his soul for a second or two. 

"Link, have you not been sleeping?" Pit's voice was soft, as gentle as the touch one used to pet a kitten. The truth was that he hadn't been—the opposite, in fact; he'd been avoiding it fiercely as much as he could.

"I—Well, I kind of try not to. So you guys can sleep, y'know."

"But you need sleep, too!"

Link smiled wiltingly and gave a dismissive flick of the hand. "Every time I try, I wake you up. Probably others too, these walls aren't exactly sound-proof."

Pit didn't seem totally convinced. "Is that all? A lot of these...  _nightmares_ seem really bad."

Link's eyes fell, and he just nodded.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Did something happen? Is that why...?"

"I guess you could say that."

Pit looked away and didn't say anything for a few seconds. "I guess you don't want to say anything about what it was, huh."

"Absolutely not." Link's eyes were tired but soft, with no real signs of anger or upset. Pit stared at a wall, deep in thought. All he could think of was the faces of his men, the ones haunted by their time in the Underworld, the ones who couldn't ever truly relax around a human statue. Link looked just like them; he had the same darting eyes, the same tense shoulders, same tense posture in general. 

"Y'know... I, uh... I don't know how to say it, really. You remind me of some people from Skyworld."

Link's head snapped up. "People who made fun of you?"

"No, no! Not those! I'm a captain of Lady Palutena's army in Skyworld, and some of the men in my command... I don't know, you remind me of them. Like, with the nightmares, and stuff. They had the same kind of... anxiety, I guess, or that's the way it seems."

Link blinked several times, looking off to the side slightly, surprised. He seemed to not know how to respond, but Pit could see the wheels turning in his head frantically. "Wait. I'm not... I might not be..."

"...The only one?"

Link could only nodded, breathless.

"Yeah, of course. I think so. I guess we won't know for sure, at least as long as we can't talk to them about it, but I think there must be others, for sure."

* * *

 Link's mind buzzed with adrenaline. It was better than it had been when he woke, but he knew he wouldn't be getting back to sleep. Thinking about the nightmares and everything else brought him dangerously close to thinking about other things, and he was desperate to avoid that. In the end, he wound up doing what he always did: going for a walk around the island. It was the only way he knew to keep his train of thought moving. It moved, almost immediately, to Pit's wings.

They looked fine, to his eye. Actually, they looked nearly breathtaking, if only because Link didn't know of any other men with wings. Link had  _seen_ Pit flying, all those nights, all that time ago; it seemed Pit was  _meant_ to fly. 

Pit had said that people at 'home' made fun of him. In as short a time as the angel had been in Skyloft, Link had already come to feel for the kid the way he did for Zelda--in a word, protective. He was an only child and an orphan, and Zelda was family if family he had, and with everything that had happened on the Surface it was simply his Role In Life, now, to look after her. The way she had, back when. 

(Back when he was being bullied--)

He groaned and pressed his palms over his eyelids. Maybe if Pit could fly, it would be easier, somehow.

"Link?"

He jumped, going cold for a second before he recognized the voice.

"Ah--uh--Professor," he stammered, whipping around on his heels and rubbing at his eyes to wipe some of the fatigue away. 

"What are you doing up? It's not like you to be awake before five a.m.," Professor Owlan said in a light voice, carrying his remlit, Mia, and idly scratching behind one of her ears. 

"Couldn't sleep. Uh, could you... help with something? It'll be, uh, strange, but..."

"Is it something for that insomnia?"

Link flushed a bit. "No, get off my ba--just, I'll meet in your office. Is that, um, okay?"

Owlan smiled gently at Link. "Of course that's okay. I'll go eagerly await this mystery of yours," he said with a joking tone and a small wink, striding off before Link could say another word. 

* * *

 

"Oh, that  _is_ curious!"

"Can you help, Professor?"

A groggy, mostly-asleep Pit stood, sans-tunic, in Owlan's office, having his wings thoroughly examined. He winced once or twice, but otherwise seemed entirely healed. Owlan had yet to find a proper physical cause for Pit to be flightless. 

"It seems his wings are in perfect condition... at least, for a bird. And you say," he continued, walking around Pit to meet the angel's eyes, "that when your Lady helps, you  _can_ fly quite well?"

Pit yawned. "Yea...ye-yes sir..."

"I presume you know  _how_ to fly, in theory?"

"Yeah..."

"This Palutena, does her help involve changing something about your wings structurally? Do they get bigger, or something?"

Pit exhaled heavily. "Not... uh... that I know of," he murmured.

Owlan scratched the bottom of his jaw, brows scrunched up, deep in thought. Several long moments passed. At last, he spoke. “I believe the problem is in your central nervous system.”

“What?”

“It’s the system with your brain, spine, and nerves. It’s how your brain tells your body what to do and your body tells your brain about the environment—how things feel—and gives your brain pain signals. It’s how you move and have senses. My hypothesis is that, somewhere in that system, there’s a critical flaw in the connection between your brain and wings. So, you know how to fly up here—“ he tapped his temple with a finger, “but, somewhere along the way, the signal to the muscles in your wings is garbled or lost, so your wings don’t respond.” Pit looked lost. “...Your brain tries telling your wings what to do but your wings don’t hear.”

“Ohhh.”

“The potion will fix any problems with that connection, so if I’m correct, you’ll be able to fly.”

Pit's eyes lit up. He was utterly speechless.

"The potion?"

Link turned, but he didn't need to. He knew who it was.

Zelda strode into the room, arms crossed, hair in a messy ponytail. Link smiled at her involuntarily, in a wide, sloppy grin that he was barely conscious of. When she saw it, the corners of her lips tugged up, and her cheeks got a bit more color to them.

"What potion?" She asked, tone of voice unchanged.

"I think I have an idea for how to cure whatever is afflicting our flightless friend," Owlan said, scurrying around to his desk and rooting through drawers until he found a scrap of parchment. After a second of furious scribbling, he flicked his hand out towards the teenagers with what had become a list. Zelda automatically went forward to receive it, running her eyes across it twice by the time she'd gotten back to her spot.

"These are all on the Surface." The hair on the back of Link's neck stood on end, despite himself. "Sounds like a job for us--"

" _Us_?" Link had said it before he could stop himself. Zelda's eyes snapped up to his--at first they were confused, but only for a moment. 

"...Oh dear, of course," Zelda murmured, face falling. "I... Link, it won't be bad, I promise," she was murmuring now, so low that even Pit couldn't hear, "just a quick little thing, some ingredients, and we'll be back before you even know it--"

"Zel--" Link was shaking  _hard_ already, and too terrified to be embarrassed. Zelda lightly held one of his hands in hers without breaking eye contact. It was all he could do to not cry. "Zelda--I can't--I  _cannot_ do that--" he ripped in a quick breath between his teeth and the next words left him. Zelda rubbed the back of his hand reassuringly.

"Of course you're right, of course," she whispered, smiling at him in a way that could only be called loving, "of course. You do what you have to, hun. I'll take care of it."

"Please be okay--please be safe down there," his voice was hardly more than a choked whisper. She nodded and smiled. 

"It'll be fine."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hhnnnnnngggghhhhh i started typing this may secoooonnnndd fdlsfkdljfdkncdfkl  
> yes...uh......Angst Is Coming sooner than later and then i'll have to actually plot out some more lol shhhhh  
> also it's 1 am when im finishing this lmao


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